Month three of The Race had the Fusion 3 Squad in Ethiopia, a beautiful yet broken country. For the 28 days that we made this country our home, story after story became part of our lives, changing our mindset and challenging what we thought we knew about the world. It’s taken me awhile to decide what I should blog about and and which stories I should share. Part of why it’s taken me so long to do this is because there are so many stories with so many lessons that it’s hard to narrow them down. The other part of that is Ethiopia was hard. It was such a wonderful month and I would gladly go back and stay longer to soak in the culture and be with the people. The other part of that is I saw some hard things and I’m still processing a lot of what I saw. The levels of poverty, oppression and darkness were unreal to me and even though I’m no longer in Africa, I’m still working through the reality of what people are surviving in. So i’m going to share a few stories in this post. Mainly to help me process and remember what I saw and learned, but also to share and reach out to my prayer warriors back home to pray for this part of East Africa.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,” Isaiah 61:1
Ethiopia is one of the poorest country in the world. But I don’t think I understood exactly what that meant until I was there and physically saw it in person. Countless homeless had makeshift homes all along the sidewalks. Countless street kids we roaming around asking for food and water. Countless amounts of times I was approached by women with babies asking for food to give to their child. My heart broke every time I stepped out onto the street. There was no escaping it unless you locked yourself away. Thankfully God wouldn’t let me do that. Early on in our first week, a friend from another team and I decided to fast from food and use our daily food budget to buy food and water for those on the street. All we bought were bananas and bottles of water, but even with a backpack for of bottles and arms loaded down with fruit, we knew it wouldn’t be enough. But God reminded my friend, who encouraged me, that all we have to focus on is the person He places in front of us. For a few hours that day we walked the streets and handed out what we had. Most of the people that approached us didn’t speak English, but we prayed over them anyway, asking that God show them the peace, joy and love only He can provide.
Another extremely prominent aspect of this area is the oppression of women. It isn’t common for young women to go out and get jobs and it isn’t because they don’t want a job. Women’s rights is still being fought for and accepted in Ethiopia, and is many years from obtaining the freedom women deserve. Because of this, many women are forced into prostitution. Prostitution is legal in Ethiopia and all you have to do is stay out on the street after sundown to see this proof. God broke two of my teammates hearts for this problem and lead them to pray over the women in the morning when they would be ending their time out. So at 5 am, Melo and Mhairi would lead our team out to walk on the street and pray over and with the women. Our main focus of prayer here was that encouragers would come in who were willing to fight for these girls long term and show them the hope of Jesus.
Our second move to our second home of the month lead us to a Leprosy community 20 minutes away from our first home. The day we arrived was the day right after the landslide at the community dump occurred. The night before at 7:20 pm a fire was set at the dump, causing the garbage to shift and create a landslide. The poor of this community had made their homes in the dump and many of them were buried and killed. While the government claims less than one hundred people lost their lives, locals explained to us the number is closer to two or three hundred. For a week after the slide bodies were still being dug up and loved ones still being searched for. A tent was set up next to the dump for the families that had come out of the dump. Many sitting in this tent were holding pictures of someone they had lost or were still searching for. Seeing the brokenness and hurt in this community tore my heart. But God taught me such a cool lesson in this brokenness. Nearly a week after the accident, the community held a candlelight service at the dump. It seemed a thousand people had showed up and in the fading light of sundown I could see a sea of flickering lights flooding the street that lead to the dump. And then the rain came. Ethiopia is in the middle of drought season, but for the first time since we had arrived it rained. Huge drops of water came down and candles were splashed out. The first lesson: this community cares for each other and comes together to remain strong. The second lesson: God will bring renewal and wash away the sting of death in this area.
I could share so many more stories…but I still need to find the words for those. Keep praying for Ethiopia, friends. And don’t hesitate to hit me up with questions about the awesome organizations doing works in Ethiopia, or just general questions about whats going on.
